20 Jan 2025
The human brain is designed to recognize patterns. In particular, we recognize behavior patterns. This is not unique to humans. Our cat (an indoor/outdoor cat) for example, has noticed that when he wants to come in the house, he can come to my window sill and if I am at my desk, I will go to the front door and let him in. I wonder if he even tests this pattern, because sometimes he seems to want to come in, but when I open the door, he walks right past and doesn't come in the house.
The difference between humans and other animals (like our cat) is that we humans have an incredibly well developed cortex (the pattern recognizing part of the brain). Many years can be dedicated to learning why and how this development happened, but it seems a well studied and well documented fact.
With this well developed brain of ours, we replicate patterns of behavior, both our own and those of others that we have observed. When you see a behavior that seems to produce a particular result, and you want that result you tend to replicate that behavior.
Another difference between humans and other animals is that we have language, probably the most developed language ability of all species on Earth. Our cat can certainly recognize patterns, but he can't verbalize it.
Other species are thought to have language and an ability to think, notably dolphins, whales, elephants, and non-human primates. But they don't seem to have developed them so far as to dominate the planet as we have.
I once had a student tell me "I do better with procedures." I have always found this attitude frustrating, but perhaps he understood at an intuitive level what I am glimpsing here.
That's all I have for this week. I plan on posting each week moving forward.